In recognition, celebration and awareness of girls all around the world, Tuesday, October 11th was the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the Girl. In honor of the day, Foothill’s Girl Up club shared purple ribbons with the students of Foothill.

“It’s just a celebration for girls, or an awareness, for girls around the world. […] It’s just to celebrate the efforts towards improving lives for girls, especially in third world countries, but also everywhere,” junior Maizie Anders, president of the Girl Up club, said.

Pearl Esparza, Girl Up Vice President, added that “this day is important because there is still a lot of injustice towards girls and women all over the world. It’s also important to empower young women and to give them hope for a more just and free future.”

Anders and Esparza, along with the rest of Girl Up club, distributed 600 purple ribbons to students around school to represent that 60 percent of people who have HIV/AIDS in the world are female. This stems from child marriages, the commonality of rape and “that women in other countries, and our own, have to sell their bodies to support themselves,” Anders said.

“To bring awareness to what is happening in other countries and in our own, is such an important thing for us to do and to realize that there is equality everywhere for women and it is important to recognize and get people to advocate for their rights,” Anders commented.